Day 128 - Roasted Whole Fish

Marcy's back, and it's fish time. I thought about repeating the Steamed Whole Fish for her, but then I remembered this variation on the Salt-Baked Fish, with an option to use the same delicious Asian flavors...

Roasted Whole Fish (p. 141)

That steamed fish was so wonderful, I couldn't help but hope that this roasted fish would at least hint at the greatness of the flavors of that dish. Not so much.

Unlike the steamed version, which has herbs placed under, over, and inside the fish, this roasted version has herbs only inside. I should mention that I couldn't find any lemongrass, which is a pretty big omission, flavor-wise. But still, there must be something about the steaming process which really infuses the flavors of the herbs in the fish flesh itself.

This roasted fish was cooked perfectly, and it was as delicious as well-cooked snapper can be, but it didn't have the same intensity of flavor of the steamed one. In fact, it was hard to find any evidence of these aromatics at all. (Specifically, I used garlic, scallions, ginger, lime zest, cilantro, and a bit of fish sauce.) Ah, well. It was still a wonderful meal.

I will pass along a tip that my friend Annie gave me. The skin of the fish she was roasting adhered to the pan, making clean-up torturous. She had considered lining the pan with parchment, but the cooking temperature was too high and it would have been unsafe. (How thorough is she? She reads the boxes!) What she realized afterward was that tin foil would have done the trick. So that's what I used. It was a really effective time and clean-up saver.

Jeff: A
Martha: A

Until we eat again....